An archive of news items related to child abuse or neglect, or infringement of children's rights, in a religious context.
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21 Dec 2010

Lawsuit settlement, sympathy for victims part of pattern since big verdict

by Patrick Boyle

A sex abuse lawsuit that ended with a nearly $20 million verdict against the Boy Scouts in April appears to have changed how the organization tries to prevent and respond to child molesting.

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has settled lawsuits by six former Scouts in Oregon who say they were abused by the former leader who was the offender at the center of that verdict, the victims’ attorneys announced Wednesday. The total settlement amount was not disclosed.

It’s the latest of several changes made by the BSA since the Oregon verdict.

Just months ago, the BSA had rejected settlement offers in the suit by former Scout Kerry Lewis and forged ahead with a dramatic trial that brought weeks of sensational publicity, exposed the BSA’s confidential files about alleged molesters in Scouting, and led a jury to award Lewis $1.4 million for negligence and $18.5 million in punitive damages. It was the largest jury award ever in a sex abuse case against the Scouts.

Five more victims of the same abuser, former Assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes, were lined up with their own lawsuits filed by the same attorney, Kelly Clark, who won the Lewis case. Observers wondered if the harsh jury verdict in that case would encourage the BSA to settle the other lawsuits.

The BSA stood defiant after the Lewis verdict, issuing a statement saying, “We are gravely disappointed with the verdict. We intend to appeal.”

Then in July, the BSA created a new full-time position of youth protection director, naming Michael Johnson, a former detective from Texas who has investigated child abuse and trained others in such investigations.

The BSA has not linked those changes to the trial. But Clark, one of the attorneys for Lewis, said Wednesday, “These kinds of changes would not have occurred without this litigation; of that we are convinced. The BSA is a safer organization than it was six months ago.”

Now comes the settlement with the six victims, including Lewis, who was in the mediation by order of the judge in the trial. For Lewis, 39, the settlement ends the stress and any uncertainty of an appeal.

“We are glad this is over,” Lewis said in a prepared statement. “Three years of litigation has taken a huge toll on our lives.”

The BSA issued its own prepared statement that was striking for its change of tone, indicating that it wants to shake the cold corporate image that came across as it fought sex abuse lawsuits, especially during the Lewis trial.

In court statements and in earlier news releases, BSA’s comments about sex abuse have sounded like corporate public relations pronouncements, downplaying the problem of abuse in Scouting, expressing little or no sympathy for the victims and stressing the organization’s determination to move on with its great work. Victims have cited the corporation’s attitude as fueling their anger.

In contrast, yesterday’s BSA statement said:

“We are deeply saddened by the events in these cases. We extend our sympathies to the victims and are pleased to have reached a settlement which will both prevent these men from reliving their experiences during a trial and allow BSA to focus even more intently on the continued enhancement of our youth protection program.”

The include the BSA paying the state of Oregon $2.25 million in punitive damages, said attorney Clark.

From 1984 through 1992, the BSA was sued at least 60 times for alleged sex abuse by Scout leaders. During that time, settlements and judgments totaled more than $16 million. The two largest jury verdicts against the BSA appear to be a $4.2 million verdict in Oregon in 1987 and a $3.75 million verdict in California in 1991.

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Religious Child Abuse

Marge Simpson: "I know God would never ask a mother to give up her child for the world...again."

Judith Herman describes the way in which perpetrators seek to control the disclosures and discourses of abuse:

“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator’s first line of defense. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no-one listens... After every atrocity one can expect to hear the same predictable apologies: it never happened; the victim lies; the victim exaggerates; the victim brought it on herself; and in any case it is time to forget the past and move on.”

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This blog is an archive of news articles on religion related child abuse. The dates in the Blog Archive list below are the dates these articles were posted to this archive, not the original date of the article. Each post in this blog includes at the top of the entry the name of the originating publication or website, the original date of publication, the name of the reporter or author of the article if one was provided, and at the bottom of each entry a link to the original source.

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